3 ms·
> Concerning the definition of temperature: are you aware that there is an implicit assumption about temperature scales when defined in the statistical physics
by kgwgk 4y ago
> Concerning the definition of temperature: are you aware that there is an implicit assumption about temperature scales when defined in the statistical physics way?
What’s wrong with the usual arguments for the identification of beta as being (proportional to) the inverse of the thermodynamic temperature? You mean that it’s based on an arbitrary choice of constant to identify the entropies?
- krastanov 4y agoMostly yes (but we can probably debate semantics). It is not at all obvious that the inverse beta should be proportional to what we conventionally call temperature. One needs to prove that.
- kgwgk 4y agoOnce we define the entropy its integrating factor is what we conventionally call temperature. I agree that correspondence between things is not obvious - but once defined it seems to work and I don’t know if we could have more proof than that. I also agree that thermodynamics is worth studying in itself - and otherwise the attempt to reproduce it using statistical mechanics doesn’t make a lot of sense.